Ryan Mullin
11/30/19
Rwandan Genocide: The Failure of Human Rights
Quick summary of the events that occurred during the Genocide.
Throughout history, humans have been able to do miraculous tasks such as putting a man on the moon and utilizing a pig heart for human heart transplants. These don't make the human race perfect though, we are equally known for being responsible for some of the most terrible crimes committed against our own kin. Slavery, sexual violence, and apartheid are just a few examples of such atrocities. When United Nations (UN) was formed after World War II, their first task was to try and stop these heinous crimes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was the UN’s solution and was created to affirm an individual's rights. While the UDHR made many strides in the right direction to try to make the world a safer place, one historical event brings up the legitimacy of not only the UDHR but the entire UN. The Rwandan Genocide of the late 20th century violated plenty of human rights, such as Article 3 which is to ensure one's "life, liberty and security of person" (UDHR) and the fact that the United Nations did little to help or stop these violations occurring unfortunately shows how little the organization can do.
Figure 1: A picture of a Rwandan Refugee Camp (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/world/africa/rwanda-genocide-25-years.html)
Instead of jumping right into Rwanda and the situation that happened there, an understanding of the United Nations must be established first. Formed on October 24, 1945, the UN came into existence after its charter was ratified by its representatives, forming quickly after the end of World War II and almost two decades after the original attempt for world wide diplomacy, the League of Nations (“History of the United Nations”). A primary focus of the UN was "human rights", and the charter contained aspirations to "internationalize human rights norms" (Campbell 93). The UN tried to accomplish this goal through two different methods, written documents such as the "International Bill of Rights" and the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights", and by sending in peacekeepers, to specific regions where armed conflict has started to happen. Known as "Blue Helmets", it is not a UN maintained military, but instead a set of volunteers provided by member states.
The Rwandan Genocide was not an overnight plan, it started as a strife that was bubbling for centuries. Rwanda, a small country located in Central Africa, was "believed to have been initially settled by the Twa", the Twa being one of many Pygmy groups located within the continent (“Enets”). Coming in soon after, the Hutu people arrived sometime between the "5th and 11th centuries", which caused the Twa people to retreat. The last group of people, the Tutsi migrated around the “14th century", culminating years later “with the emergence of a small nuclear kingdom in the central region, ruled by the Tutsi Minority” that was maintained until European arrival sometime in the 19th century (“Rwanda genocide of 1994”). Tutsi and Hutu people were very different, with the “pastoral, light-skinned and tall” Tutsi and “agriculturalist, dark-skinned and short” Hutu, one would think the separation between the two would be distinct. This ended up not being the case, at the time at least, with identification between the two being “fluid” due to intermarriage between the two groups along with the use of a common language.
Figure 3: Depiction of the people of Rwanda (https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~gallo22e/classweb/Website-World%20Politics/History.html)
This all changed during the colonial era when the Germans created a system where being Hutu and Tutsi different mattered, mainly due to the Tutsi being viewed as having more power due to their small kingdom. Not only that but the indirect rule of the Germans and eventual Belgians “strengthened the hegemony of the Tutsi ruling class”, which began to anger the Hutu greatly (“Rwanda genocide of 1994”). Rumors of a Hutu leader being killed at the hands of the Tutsi began a Hutu revolution, resulting in a series of attacks against the Tutsi which made many begin to leave the country. After a Hutu coup on January 28, 1961, one with “approval of the Belgian colonial authorities”, the Tutsi monarchy was abolished, resulting in Rwanda becoming a republic led by only Hutu. Transition was rough, the Tutsi were still being targeted under the Hutu rule, with 20,000 being killed by the time the Hutu took over and at least 150,000 moving to neighboring countries. This flared over when the Rwandan Patriotic Front(FPR), a Tutsi-led organization, invaded Uganda in 1990, causing the Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyairmana, to not only call for a ceasefire but to negotiate with the FPR by establishing a transition government that would include the revolutionaries. This Hutu extremists. A cruel fate began on April 6, 1994, when President Habyarimana was killed in a plane crash, which many Hutu extremists blamed on the FPR and Tutsi this blame resulted in the organized killing of Tutsi and moderate Hutu that night. 100 days of infamy followed, with over “800,000 civilians” being killed, 200,000 Hutu participating in Genocidal acts and as many as 2,000,000 Rwandans fleeinginto eastern Zaire (“Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter”).
Figure 4: A pastor and teacher visit a Cemetery were 6,000 genocide victims are buried. (https://www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/1994-rwandan-genocide-facts)
The UN created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for this reason, to ensure "the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms" (UDHR,Preamble). Thirty different articles consist the document, covering topics from basic dignity and liberty to the legality of human rights, and while all articles are important, the third article, which states "Everyone has the right to life,liberty and security of person", relates the most to the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide (UDHR,Article 3). "Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" can be defined as genocide, which clearly violates the rights that article 3 promises (“UN General Assembly, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”). The killing of at least "800,000 Rwandans" over the 100 day span by Hutu supremacist militia groups, with the civilians primarily being Tutsi or moderate Hutu, qualifies as the Hutu extremist wanted to destroy these people entirely. Discovery of plans to exterminate the Tutsi, dating a year before the assassination of president Habyarimana, also shows that these feelings and attacks were premeditated in a sense, making the violations more apparent(“Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter”).
Figure 5: Elanor Roosevelt holding a copy of the UDHR (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Universal-Declaration-of-Human-Rights)
Approximately a year before the Genocide began, the UN was already involved with Rwanda through the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), which had been stationed in the country since "October 1993" (Dallaire, Page 98). The UNAMIR was originally created to end the civil strife occurring in Rwanda earlier in the 1990's and to aid with peace processes between the RPF and the Rwandan government. Considering Commander Romeo Dallaire knew of “plans for the mass extermination of Tutsi” and various secret weapon caches within Rwanda, the UNAMIR should have been able to prevent this violation of human rights from happening. However, any time Dallaire attempted to raid these caches, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations turned him down (Dallaire, Page 146-150). Not only that, but attempts to make peace between the RPF and the Rwandan government were made difficult by President Habyarimana, and unfortunately after the President's death, these attempts were only met with even more failure from neither side wanting a ceasefire. With genocidaires running the government, RPF feeling it was "necessary to fight", and UNAMIR unable to intervene militarily, the UN was left to be on the sidelines, only able to provide refuge for the Tutsi (Dallaire, Page 247). Making matters worse, the Belgian government, one of the largest forces in UNAMIR, was pulling out due to a large amount of casualties, making them even more ineffective. By the time the UN tried to reinforce UNAMIR to allow themselves to intervene, the Genocide was in its last legs, and all they ended up doing was maintaining security and stability in Rwanda, ultimately failing to enforce their promise to maintain Human Rights.
Figure 6: Members of UNAMIR II standing among debris made by the RPA (https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1020048)
Thankfully, on July 4, 1994, the Tutsi RPF took control of Kigali, Rwanda's capital, bringing an end to the monstrous acts (Dallaire 459). That date would be recognized as Rwanda's Liberation Day, but unfortunately issues did not stop there. At least a million Hutu fled to the country of Zaire, to live in refugee camps "They would spend months there, living in appalling conditions. They knew that there was no future from them there, but they were unwilling to head back home." (Radio Netherlands Archives). The living conditions were not the only appalling thing, these camps were set up by the UN under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The camps themselves were led by the former Hutu regime, where they began to plan there strike back, however this doesn't mean all of the Hutu refugees in the camps were planning this. Eventually, the Hutu began to attack via cross-border incursions, causing the RPF to not only counterattack, but to also follow them further into Zaire to try and stop the Hutu militia. In a cruel twist of fate, the Tutsi became the evil they once fought against, indiscriminately killing Hutu refugees, some not even Rwandan Hutu, and in total killing “232,000 refugees” (Emizet, Page 163). This conflict eventually caused another two wars, the First and Second Congo Wars, even more violence that could have been stopped.
Figure 7: Aerial photograph of a Refugee camp located in Mihanda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Hutus_during_the_First_Congo_War#/media/File:Mihanda_camp.jpg)
With all of this information given, it is quite clear that Human Rights were violated, therefore why was nothing done about it? The problem lies directly within the UDHR document itself, “The Universal Declaration is not a treaty, so it does not directly create legal obligations for countries” (“What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?”). Binding agreements have come from the UDHR, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, but even then, in Rwanda's Case nothing was done. Without it being legally binding, it is up to the UN to protect these rights, but as mentioned earlier that was a failure. To be brutally honest, the Rwandan Genocide could have been stopped if any other country or organization cared. From France to the U.S., warnings were being sent out to them months before, but they just didn't react with haste, "Americans were interested in saving money, the Belgians were interested in saving face, and the French were interested in saving their ally" (“Rwandan Genocide Could Have Been Stopped”). If any of these countries cared about humanity instead of profit, or if the UN was able to give the UNAMIR more power sooner, this atrocity could have been stopped.
Figure 8: UNAMIR soldier sitting among Rwandan Youth (https://valourband.com/medal-spotlight-un-assistance-mission-rwanda-unamir/)
The UN knew it failed Rwanda. Ban Ki-Moon, a UN personnel, even stated in 2014, "In Rwanda, troops were withdrawn when they were most needed." and, " we could have done much more. We should have done much more." (“Rwanda genocide: UN ashamed, says Ban Ki-moon“). In 1999, a UN report stated that the mission was "disgraceful" for the countless mistakes that they made, such as abandoning the safe zones they created for the Tutsi (Dorn and Matloff). Relative simple changes such as changing the mandate to allow the peacekeepers to intervene when they saw violent acts taking place could have greatly changed the outcome. This isn't to say all peacekeeping failed. A group of Canadian peacekeepers "adopted" an orphanage to protect children, which not only saved the lives of many during the final weeks of the genocide, but their actions showed that the Rwandans could trust them in times of need. Through this acknowledgment of failure and success, the UN has been able to change for the better, such as sending peacekeepers earlier to prevent flare-ups in places such as Darfur and initiatives such as the Center for Civilians in Conflict, trying to reform the way peacekeeping works in the UN.
Figure 9: UN soldier given supplies to Hutu refugees (https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-09-09/lessons-un-peacekeeping-mission-rwanda-25-years-after-genocide-it-failed-stop)
The Rwandan genocide is a truly terrible moment in time. Not only was it such a blatant violation of human rights, it also made the UN, the people trying to prevent events like this from occurring, look foolish in a crucial moment. Despite the countless mistakes, and some much deserved flak, the UN are learning from what they did wrong and are trying to improve from it. Human rights are something that can't just happen overnight as well, even though it would seem wonderful to enforce them globally, citizens of earth need to understand them in order for them to truly have an impact, if forced it can lose its meaning. Rwanda has also been able to move on from this dark time in history, not by repressing it, but by acknowledging and learning from it to avert future tragedy, an exercise that the rest of the world could gain from. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reflected the idea best, "Learn the lessons of Rwanda and work together to build a future of dignity, tolerance and human rights for all."(“'Learn the Lessons of Rwanda”).
Figure 10: 25th Commemoration of the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide
Work Cited:
Gregory H. Stanton. “Could the Rwandan Genocide Have Been Prevented?” Journal of Genocide Research, vol. 6, no. 2, 2004, pp. 211–228., doi:10.1080/1462352042000225958.
Attwood, Charlotte. “Rwanda Genocide: UN Ashamed, Says Ban Ki-Moon.” BBC News, BBC, 7 Apr. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26917419.
Campbell, Patricia J., et al. An Introduction to Global Studies. Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
Dallaire Roméo. Shake Hands With The Devil: the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Cornerstone Digital, 2008.
Dorn, Walter & Matloff, Jonathan. (2000). Preventing the Bloodbath: Could the UN have Predicted and Prevented the Rwandan Genocide?. 20.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Enets.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 Feb. 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/Enets.
Emizet, Kisangani N. F. “The Massacre of Refugees in Congo: a Case of UN Peacekeeping Failure and International Law.” The Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 38, no. 2, 2000, pp. 163–202., doi:10.1017/s0022278x0000330x.
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“'Learn the Lessons of Rwanda,' Says UN Chief, Calling for a Future of Tolerance, Human Rights for All | UN News.” United Nations, United Nations, 7 Apr. 2017, news.un.org/en/story/2017/04/554942-learn-lessons-rwanda-says-un-chief-calling-future-tolerance-human-rights-all.
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“Rwanda Genocide of 1994.” Edited by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 5 Aug. 2016, www.britannica.com/event/Rwanda-genocide-of-1994.
“Rwanda Genocide: 100 Days of Slaughter.” BBC News, BBC, 4 Apr. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26875506.
“Rwandan Genocide Could Have Been Stopped.” Human Rights Watch, 5 Apr. 2019, www.hrw.org/news/1999/03/31/rwandan-genocide-could-have-been-stopped#.
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/.
“UN General Assembly, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”, 9 December 1948, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 78, p. 277, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3ac0.html [accessed 1 December 2019]
“What Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?: Australian Human Rights Commission.” The Australian Human Rights Commission, www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/what-universal-declaration-human-rights.
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